Saturday, 21 April 2012

That's good but not good enough. Canada's rules about petitions are archaic. Here is ARCC's explainer on the difference between paper and electronic petitions and its plans to use both sorts.

The main reason ARCC is also offering a paper petition is because the anti-choice movement has been submitting paper petitions, and it's important to show Parliament that we have official support for our side too. Another advantage of submitting a paper petition is that MPs are required to present it to the House and it gets read into the official Hansard record. We will ask a number of MPs to present batches of petition sheets to maximize the impact. Finally, the paper petition allows people who are not online to express their opposition to the motion - so please target them if you can. (People who are online may sign both petitions.) Note: You do not need to obtain 25 signatures on every sheet - ARCC just needs a minimum of 25 signatures total before submitting petition sheets to an MP.

And indeed the Fetus Lobby has been busy. Here's one bragging yesterday that they have 3816 signatures on paper. (It's got a breakdown by the MPs who will present them.)

Yeah. I know. This is all so old hat. Been there, done that.

But it's gotta be done AGAIN. Old, er, experienced campaigners and new, younger campaigners are joining forces to beat this down once and for all. (Yeah. Right.)

But ya, it's a pisser, waking up and realizing ya gotta do this one all over again. That said, when a friend and I discussed this yesterday, there's a sweetness in being a bridge in the movement, taking what we learned as student activists and passing it forward to the young women.

My daughter's working on this issue, too. Are we both dedicated feminists or are we simply bound in our oppression?